Modeling the Downstream Processing of Monoclonal Antibodies Reveals Cost Advantages for Continuous Methods for a Broad Range of Manufacturing Scales.

The biopharmaceutical industry is evolving in response to changing market conditions, including increasing competition and growing pressures to reduce costs. Single-use (SU) technologies and continuous bioprocessing have attracted attention as potential facilitators of cost-optimized manufacturing for monoclonal antibodies. While disposable bioprocessing has been adopted at many scales of manufacturing, continuous bioprocessing has yet to reach the same level of implementation. In this study, the cost of goods of Pall Life Science's integrated, continuous bioprocessing (ICB) platform is modeled, along with that of purification processes in stainless-steel and SU batch formats. All three models include costs associated with downstream processing only. Evaluation of the models across a broad range of clinical and commercial scenarios reveal that the cost savings gained by switching from stainless-steel to SU batch processing are often amplified by continuous operation. The continuous platform exhibits the lowest cost of goods across 78% of all scenarios modeled here, with the SU batch process having the lowest costs in the rest of the cases. The relative savings demonstrated by the continuous process are greatest at the highest feed titers and volumes. These findings indicate that existing and imminent continuous technologies and equipment can become key enablers for more cost effective manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals.

Optimized Continuous Multicolumn Chromatography Enables Increased Productivities and Cost Savings by Employing More Columns.

The advantages of continuous chromatography with respect to increased capacity are well established. However, the impact of different loading scenarios and total number of columns on the process economics has not been addressed. Here four different continuous multicolumn chromatography (MCC) loading scenarios are evaluated for process performance and economics in the context of a Protein A mAb capture step. To do so, a computational chromatography model is validated experimentally. The model is then used to predict process performance for each of the loading methods. A wide range of feed concentrations and residence times are considered, and the responses of operating binding capacity, specific productivity, and the number of process columns are calculated. Processes that are able to add more columns proved to be up to 65% more productive, especially at feed concentrations above 5 g L-1 . An investigation of the operating costs shows that discrete column sizing and process performance metrics do not always correlate and that the most productive process is not necessarily the most cost effective. However, adding more columns for the non-load steps at higher feed concentrations allows for overall cost savings of up to 32%.

Transfer of a three step mAb chromatography process from batch to continuous: Optimizing productivity to minimize consumable requirements.

The goal of this study was to adapt a batch mAb purification chromatography platform for continuous operation. The experiments and rationale used to convert from batch to continuous operation are described. Experimental data was used to design chromatography methods for continuous operation that would exceed the threshold for critical quality attributes and minimize the consumables required as compared to batch mode of operation. Four unit operations comprising of Protein A capture, viral inactivation, flow-through anion exchange (AEX), and mixed-mode cation exchange chromatography (MMCEX) were integrated across two Cadence BioSMB PD multi-column chromatography systems in order to process a 25L volume of harvested cell culture fluid (HCCF) in less than 12h. Transfer from batch to continuous resulted in an increase in productivity of the Protein A step from 13 to 50g/L/h and of the MMCEX step from 10 to 60g/L/h with no impact on the purification process performance in term of contaminant removal (4.5 log reduction of host cell proteins, 50% reduction in soluble product aggregates) and overall chromatography process yield of recovery (75%). The increase in productivity, combined with continuous operation, reduced the resin volume required for Protein A and MMCEX chromatography by more than 95% compared to batch. The volume of AEX membrane required for flow through operation was reduced by 74%. Moreover, the continuous process required 44% less buffer than an equivalent batch process. This significant reduction in consumables enables cost-effective, disposable, single-use manufacturing.

A straightforward methodology for designing continuous monoclonal antibody capture multi-column chromatography processes.

A simple process development strategy for continuous capture multi-column chromatography (MCC) is described. The approach involves a few single column breakthrough experiments, based on several simplifying observations that enable users to rapidly convert batch processes into well-designed multi-column processes. The method was validated using a BioSMB(®) (Pall Life Sciences) lab scale multi-column system and a mAb capture process employing Protein A resin. The approach enables users to optimize MCC processes based on their internal preferences and constraints without requiring any mathematical modeling expertise.

Combined Protein A and size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography for the single-step measurement of mAb, aggregates and host cell proteins.

Quantification of monoclonal antibody (mAb) monomer, mAb aggregates, and host cell proteins (HCPs) is critical for the optimization of the mAb production process. The present work describes a single high throughput analytical tool capable of tracking the concentration of mAb, mAb aggregate and HCPs in a growing cell culture batch. By combining two analytical HPLC methods, Protein A affinity and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), it is possible to detect a relative increase or decrease in the concentration of all three entities simultaneously. A comparison of the combined Protein A-SEC assay to SEC alone was performed, demonstrating that it can be useful tool for the quantification of mAb monomer along with trending data for mAb aggregate and HCP. Furthermore, the study shows that the Protein A-SEC method is at least as accurate as other commonly used analytical methods such as ELISA and Bradford.